His handling of abuse

In Boston, O'Malley is perhaps best known for a sympathetic,
human response to sexual abuse in the region — a welcome change
from one predecessor, Cardinal Bernard Law, who became notorious
for cover-ups.

O'Malley was forced to confront abuse in the Church after
the sexual abuse scandal in Fall River diocese broke in the early
1990s. By 1995 when he required all Catholic clergymen, staff
and volunteers with access to children to participate in abuse
prevention workshops, complete a detailed questionnaire on their
past, and agree to a criminal background check. His policy was
summed up as zero-tolerance.

For a Church that is widely seen as having mishandled decades of
abuse, someone with O'Malley's experience could be vital for
moving on. Even those that felt he didn't go far enough — and he
certainly has critics — may admit he'd be a step in the right
direction.

He speaks Spanish

However, O'Malley has considerable language skills. Not only is
he a Native-English speaker, but he holds a phD in Spanish and
Portuguese literature. In both Boston and Florida, O'Malley has
shown himself adept at understanding Latino communities.
Writing in the Boston Globe, Xavier L. Suarez says that his
work with the community resulted in him being "unofficially but
universally recognized as Hispanic".

Having a Spanish-speaker as leader of the Vatican is a clear
advantage for the Catholic Church for one key reason —
demographics.

He understands the Internet

The Vatican can't have failed to notice how
popular the Pope's Twitter account, launched last year, was.
With O'Malley they will have a Pope who has already proved
himself adept at communicating with the internet.

So many things appear on the Internet that are just jokes or
hoaxes to get a rise out of people that I said, “I don’t think
that can be an accurate statement.” However, by the time we came
out of our meditation, lauds and Mass at about 8 o’clock, it was
being reported by all the mainstream news outlets. So, I realized
it had to be true.

A media-savvy Pope who can blog and tweet in English, Spanish,
Portuguese and (maybe with a little help) Italian? That sounds
like a 21st Century Pope.

Could he do it?

O'Malley is far from a favorite — he's not even the favorite
American, according to Paddy Power. Cardinal Timothy Dolan
currently leads him by 33/1 to 40/1, and is generally seen as a
more charismatic speaker.

While the desire for a non-European Pope is strong, it doesn't
mean that it's going to happen. An overwhelmingly
European group of Cardinals will make up the conclave, and
its not hard to see why they may balk at the idea of a Pope from
the world's richest, most powerful country.

Many observers believe that, after a Polish Pope followed by a
German Pope, the numerous Italians in the conclave may want an
Italian. Archbishop Angelo Scola and Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone,
both from Italy, are among the favorites. Cardinal Peter Turkson
of Ghana is being offered good odds, though he
faces his own major obstacles.

Cardinal Marc Ouellet from Canada is another strong possibility.
Speaking English, French, Portuguese, Italian, Spanish and
German, and having done missionary work in South America, he has
some similar positive attributes to O'Malley. But Ouellet is from Quebec, where the
Catholic Church has all-but-disappeared within his
lifetime.